RIP Alan Barnard

[tellingbone]

From The Welwyn & Hatfield Times
November 21st, 2007

A Man who worked in special effects on the James Bond and Indiana Jones films has died.

Alan Barnard, from Lemsford, passed away in October after a career as a special effects technician which included working with the likes of Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick.

He grew up in WGC with one brother, Bob, and two sisters called June and Anne.

The 79-year-old's working career started in Hatfield, working at the de Havilland aircraft company.

Alan, who never married, then had several jobs as an engineer and a period doing national service in the cavalry before entering the film industry.

From 1960 onwards he worked his way up from camera crew jobs to assistant and then supervisor in the special effects department.

He worked in studios across the world, from Elstree and Pinewood in the UK to destinations in the Middle East, South America and Europe.

More famous films he worked on included Gandhi, the first three Superman movies, Disney's Dragonslayer, Supergirl, The Dirty Dozen, Lawrence of Arabia, Full Metal Jacket and Dr Zhivago.

He also worked on Roger Moore's James Bond films Octopussy, and Moonraker, and Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade.

His work included making and operating machines to create fire wind, rain, waves and smoke, working with artists and stuntmen.

His brother Bob, 65, said: "He was a very private man and we are discovering things about him that we never knew.

"He departmentalised his friends - and one group don't know the other."

The father-of-four, who lives in St Albans, added: "He was a very clever man."

Alan Barnard completed an honours degree in art and design at the University of Hertfordshire in 1997.

A funeral was held for him at Harwood Park Crematorium in Knebworth and his ashes will be scattered at his mother's grave in St Mary Magdalene Church in Hatfield Hyde.